After taking a lot of flack for closures and delays, Costa Rican transportation officials announced one more total closure for the mega-overhaul of the Alfredo González Flores bridge spanning the Virilla River bridge along the General Cañas highway, the main artery into San José and to the international airport in Alajuela.

The bridge will be completely closed starting Saturday, April 29 at 3 p.m. and lasting until no later than 5 p.m. Monday, May 1, which is a national holiday in Costa Rica in commemoration of International Labor Day, or May Day.

Engineers will be doing final work on the approaches for a safe transition of vehicles between the bridge and the highway. They will also fill in uneven areas along the shoulders; the sinkage along the shoulders was expected to occur during the overhaul, said engineers. And workers also need to place the remaining blocks in the seismic structures, said the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation (MOPT).

In addition, the median barrier separating the two sets of 3-lanes needs to be put into place without any disruptions from traffic.

The final concrete slabs have all been placed on the bridge’s surface, giving the structure, at long last, a unified, smooth driving surface. Let’s hope it lasts a while – you know how that can go in Costa Rica … but hopefully, the painful Platina bridge days are once and for all behind us.

Alternate routes for this holiday weekend include Route 27 (the Caldera highway) and Route 3 via Heredia which has a newly inaugurated 4-lane bridge along one section.

In May, officials said they will continue to work on the bridge’s curbs and sidewalks, in addition to placing a final layer over the concrete slabs to give stronger and better uniformity and impermeability to the surface. The MOPT did not say whether any further closures would be expected in May for the final surfacing.

So, make your travel plans in and out of San José accordingly this weekend, and give time for some extra traffic with this main artery closed.